Planting demonstration plots of grace

Around the world today people are trying to determine best how to respond on the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S. How should faithful followers of Jesus respond? This is the question Pastor Phil Kniss posed in his sermon. Pastor Phil stressed that this is a political question in that it looks at how we as a community position ourselves. It is not political in the sense of partisan politics we experience in our society. This Sunday, Pastor Phil invited us to look at how we can be a community of grace in a world of dividing walls. In Ephesians 2:11-22 Paul writes of God's gracious work of reconciliation. Those who were far off have been brought near through the blood of Jesus. Very divergent groups were brought together and forced to be communities together. In doing this, they became models of God's reconciling grace in a sharply divided world. Continuing today, we are to be demonstration plots of grace in a world that desperately needs just that...God's grace.